Day 36: New Zealand

We decided to walk around Auckland a little more before heading south, so we walked through an area called the Auckland Domain, which is beautiful public park (sort of like a smaller Central Park). We stopped in to the Wintergarden and Fernery (where they grow all sorts of ferns, including the enormous tree ferns).






Here is a view of the Sky Tower, which is the highest building in Auckland with restaurants, a casino and some sort of crazy Sky Jump ride involving a free fall.




After a stop at the Japan Travel Bureau for our Japan Rail passes (which have to be purchased outside of Japan), we set off for Rotorua, which is about 3 hours south of Auckland. We stopped in Matamata for lunch which gave Frank a chance to pose in the Hobbiton Tour area which is the starting point for the local tours of some of the movie sets.






We got to our destination of Rotorua around 4pm and quickly checked in to our hotel and drove to the Rotorua Museum of Art and History. The building used to be a bath house, capitalizing on the area's geothermal activity.




We saw a movie on the history of the area and the bath house and then walked around some of the exhibits, including some showing what the bathing rooms used to look like. Very inviting...




Then we went up to the viewing platform on the roof of the museum, which had great views of Lake Rotorua and the surrounding mountains (some dormant volcanoes).




You can see some of the geothermal steam in this photo.




I should note that there is a pervasive sulfur smell around the lake and in the town in general. Not particularly pleasant.

On our way back to the hotel, we drove to the edge of the lake, which was filled with birds. The ones in the first two pictures are ducks.






These are black swans.



We finished the evening with dinner at a place called the Fat Dog Cafe. Tomorrow we are looking forward to some up close geothermal activity.

ILM